The present invention pertains to a heating system, especially for motor vehicles, which system uses the waste heat of an internal combustion engine and has a heater that can be operated with liquid fuel for generating heat independently of the operation of the internal combustion engine or in addition to the waste heat of the engine, wherein the heater is associated with an oil storage space of the internal combustion engine.
Heaters for motor vehicles, which can be operated with liquid fuel and which generate heat independently of or in addition to the operation of the internal combustion engine, are known. Their most important field of application is the preheating of the interior of the motor vehicle and/or the internal combustion engine, so that when driving off, the user of the motor vehicle already finds a warm vehicle interior with thawed windshields and a vehicle drive engine that is no longer excessively undercooled. The wear on the internal combustion engine due to cold start is substantially reduced. In addition, the exhaust gas emissions during the warm-up phase are reduced.
It is known from West German Offenlegungsschrift DE-OS 37,12,670 that the heater can be spatially associated with the oil pan of the internal combustion engine such that the heater not only heats water for the vehicle heating, but also supplies heat, over the shortest way possible, to the oil of the internal combustion engine, which oil is located in the oil pan.